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The Riches of Open Source
Daniel Dvorkin writes "This BusinessWeek article argues convincingly that Linus Torvalds has more resources at his disposal than Bill Gates. Not only is it a nice overview of Why Open Source Really Matters pitched to a non-technical audience, but it makes a solid argument in favor of OSS in general and Linux in particular, from a solidly capitalist perspective."
I'm sure that Linus has more friends than Bill Gates anyway.
Bill Gates has to pay people to work for him. Linus does not. Advantage: Linus.
Boy, after reading this, I think linux users everywhere should all join hands and sing like we're at a gay roller disco! Yah Linux! We don't need money, we can live on love, and that's the greatest power in the universe! It's better than rainbows and unicorns and unicorns flying over rainbows, and unicorns that crap out rainbow color unicorn shit oh it's just the best ever! Yah Linux!!!
Said the Anonymous Coward.
The open source community is, according to the article, "a vast flock of very creative, un-sheeplike sheep".
;-)
I have little to add to that... it's just a great line. Beware of getting fleeced by SCO.
Vanya's Law: "In any culture without irony, fart jokes will be the highest form of humor."
How can people say BSD [freebsd.org] is dying when it has a mascot [freebsd.org] like this?!
I just can't help but think of how that mascot coochie is not gonna be minty fresh after a day of being suffocated in that plastic outfit.
Sick, I know, but practical.
Welcome our new resource-rich overlord.
Our PC GOD Torvalds, which art in Transmeta^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H OSDL
Hallowed be thy skillz
Thy kernel comes, in the US and all the earth
Give us this day our daily updates.
And forgive us our holes, as we apply thine patch.
And lead us not into closed source, but deliver us from Microsoft.
For thine is the kernel, the skillz, and the leetness for ever and ever. Amen.
Things you think are in the Constitution, but are not.
Way back when I was a lad there was a nice candy store in town. The owner, Mr. Glucose, would have one day a year in which he would allow all the town children to get candy for free.
One year on Free Candy Day two teenagers were standing outside the front of the store. "That's Darl McBride and Chris Sontag," my friend whispered to me, "they're a couple of junior high bullies!" We tried to enter the store when the two bullies moved in front of me. "Hey kid," snarled McBride, "this is our candy store. If you want in you have to pay me a dime." I protested "But.. but.. Mr. Glucose owns the candy store!" Sontag laughed. "Hey punk, my mom was making candy at home for years. That means we own the candy in the store if they use sugar in it like my mom."
Upon hearing this exchange, Mr. Glucose came out of the store waving a bat and proceeded to beat the two bullies to pulp.
~ The End ~
From the article: On the surface, Linus vs. Bill seems to be the ultimate David vs. Goliath contest.
I'm pretty sure that, by definition, the ultimate David vs. Goliath contest was in fact: David vs. Goliath.
Otherwise they'd be called "Linus vs. Bill" contests now wouldn't they?
Dewey, you fool! Your decimal system has played right into my hands!
Gates can, at any time, get out of the software business and take his huge fortune (power) and wield it to do something else. He can buy an island, put a huge laser cannon on top of its highest mountain, and populate it with a thousand expensive "escort companions" to satisfy his every whim, every night. Money is raw power that can be converted to many uses.
Linus can't do that. Linus can just dominate the software world, but his power is mostly limited to that subject. I don't think Linus will ever have a giant laser cannon.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
I know you're joking, but I have to give Bill Gates some credit. If I was obscenely wealthy like that, I don't think I would be ABLE to stop myself from buying a laser cannon.
It would be like you or me buying a Snickers.
That's why he's porting Windows to 64 bit machines!
It's not wasting time, I'm educating myself.
I think you make an excellent point. I'll use myself as an example.
My passion is Linux and open source. It's where all of my creative energies are currently directed, and this is the type of thing that worries Microsoft the most. Developers mindshare leaving Microsoft and developing on Linux / *BSD.
When I develop for the Microsoft platform it is ONLY because I have no choice, not because I like it, or because I want to. When I go home or during my spare time, my computer world is Linux and I do all I can to support that world.
Take that energy times a million other Linux users, and you can see why Microsoft is terrified that its house of cards just might come down after all.
Very hard to direct them to go where you want, impossible to keep from going where they want.
Linus exerts more control by running the can opener, rather than the whip, as any cat owner would testify.
In carefully thinking my options through with regard to the most well known operating systems that a home "power user" might choose to work with, I've formulated the following axiom regarding usability:
Linux is to Windows as Windows is to Mac OS (Pre OS X).
What this means is left to the reader to determine and will obviously vary depending on which OS you prefer. Example:
A Mac user would see it this way:
Hardest is to Hard as Hard is to Easy
A Linux user would see it this way:
Least obfuscated is to Obfuscated as Obfuscated is to Most Obfuscated
A Windows user would see it this way:
"What was the question"? or "Oooooh shiny!"
Let the flamefest begin!
Well, I don't use MS products and I'm really smart. So there's one more data point.
Yea, but every member of management counts as -10 employees and they have a 10% management base.
Alito: A vote for Alito is a punch in the eye to put that bitch back in her place!
While Torvalds is a threat to Gates, Gates seems to be little or no threat to Torvalds. To hear Torvalds talk about it, he's having fun as Linux' guardian. His challenge is merely that of being an effective shepherd to a vast flock of very creative, un-sheeplike sheep.
A flock of sheep? Shouldn't that be a herd of cats?
AEIOU: open-source anonymous internet currency
Stop the Slashdot effect! Don't read the articles!
And lets not forget the thousands of extra IT jobs Bill has created because people have to constantly repair damage caused by his broken software.
If I seem short sighted, it is because I stand on the shoulders of midgets
I see you haven't learned the fundamental trick of libertarianism: Take whatever result the market gives you, and define that result as "optimal".
For example, "tainted ground water" is an optimal result, because it minimized cleanup costs for the computer parts manufacturer, and it creates a new market opportunity for selling bottled water to everyone. See, the system works!
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.